KEY POINTS:
British internet monitoring company Epitiro has a challenge for New Zealand internet providers - to let it evaluate their performance.
Epitiro expects to start local operations by July, offering a 24-hour flow of detailed data for internet companies about the performance of the overall broadband network in New Zealand.
Its New Zealand managing director, Michael Cranna, said several internet companies had already shown a high level of interest.
Vodafone said it had been talking to the company this week. Telecom would not comment.
Epitiro plans to place probes on different parts of the broadband network to emulate customer experience of a broadband connection.
"It's the first time in New Zealand that we will be able to offer a definitive view of the customer experience of broadband," said Cranna.
Broadband providers would have to pay Epitiro for the service.
The Government passed the Telecommunications Amendment Act in December, allowing Telecom's rivals to place equipment on its network, and many internet companies have promised better broadband service once this is done.
"I think the industry understands that it is necessary now that there be some way of measuring the industry's performance," said Cranna.
The company plans to publish a quarterly internet performance index of the top five internet companies, evaluated by critical measurements including email speed and how fast a website loads.
Cranna said internet companies had probes telling them about the network and marketing departments conducting customer satisfaction surveys, but no way to join up the data.
"What this technology does is it sits in the middle and joins those two bits of information together," said Cranna.
Internet New Zealand executive director Keith Davidson said plenty of tools were available on the internet to measure raw speed.
"These provide interesting results, but there is a need for a method of testing the overall ability of the connection rather than just raw speed."
The company plans to introduce the service in Auckland first, then go to the main cities and provinces.
Epitiro works for most of the large internet companies in Britain.
